Spaceq

My guest this week is Pekka Larila, Chief Financial Officer and co-founder of ICEYE.ICEYE is a Finnish company with offices in Poland and the U.S. that bills itself as having the first Synthetic Aperture Radar, or SAR, satellite in a microsatellite form weighing in at less than 100kg.By comparison traditional SART satellites are much larger needing a lot of power to accomplish their mission. The well known Canadian RADARSAT-2 satellite weighs in at 2200kg and the next-generation RADARSAT Constellation Mission satellites each weigh in at 1400kg.ICEYE is looking to disrupt the traditional Synthetic Aperture Radar satellite market. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

My guest this week is Chris Carberry, the CEO and co-founder of Explore Mars.Explore Mars is a non-profit that brings aerospace business leaders together with government entities, mediating and facilitating the direct flow of information, and was incorporated in February 2010. Prior to working at Explore Mars, Chris was the Executive Director of the Mars Society for almost two years.In today's show we discussed the ongoing effort for a human mission to Mars and how Explore Mars is bringing organizations together around the world to achieve that goal. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Happy New Year and welcome to the first SpaceQ podcast of 2018. My guest this week is Andrew Jones, a journalist based in Finland who follows China's space program. He writes for gbtimes.com, and has written guest blogs for the Planetary Society as well for SpaceNews.In this weeks podcast Andrew and I are going to delve into China's space program which has set an ambitious schedule of possibly launching more than 40 rockets this year. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

This week on the SpaceQ podcast we're doing something a little different. Instead of interviewing a guest we decided to playback a speech we recorded from the recent Canadian Space Summit held in Ottawa by Canadian Space Agency president Sylvain Laporte. In this speech, Mr. Laporte discusses what he calls “key messages” of the space program from the governments perspective.Please note that this is the last podcast of the year and we’ll return with a new show on Thursday, January 11. From the growing team at SpaceQ, we wish you and your families all the best this holiday season and a Happy New Year. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

My guest this week is Michelle Mendes, the Executive Director and President of the Canadian Space Commerce Association.The Canadian Space Commerce Association is a not-for-profit organization founded in 2007 that describes itself as the national association for the space sector, representing industry, academia, professionals, young entrepreneurs and students. Michelle is also a member of the independent Space Advisory Board created by the government to provide ongoing input on Canada’s space sector.Today we’ll be talking about satellites, in particular how technology and miniaturization of components has allowed researchers and companies to build much smaller and less costly satellites for a variety of tasks including earth observation. We’re using these small satellites for farming, monitoring our climate, disaster response, ship tracking and more.Next February 13 -15 in Toronto the Association will be holding its second Canadian SmallSat Symposium. The first conference was held in February 2016 and was sold

My guest this week is Larry Reeves, the founder of the Canadian Satellite Design Challenge. At the recent Canadian Space Society Space Summit I ran into Larry and asked him if he would like to be a guest on the show to talk about this program and provide an update on the current competition.The CSDC is a Canada-wide competition for teams of university students, undergraduate and graduate, to design and build a small satellite. To be clear, this is a competition where the students create their own team at their respective university. It is not a university led program. They do get some guidance from professors at their institutions. Students must also raise funds to build their satellites.The CSDC is in its 4th competition having completed 3 previous competitions since its inception in 2011. Larry and a core group of volunteers manage the CSDC in their spare time with some support from industry and the Canadian Space Agency. Larry’s day job is that of an engineer at the Earth Observation company UrtheCast. See

Today’s show was recorded at the Canadian Space Society’s annual Space Summit in Ottawa on November 21st. Among the keynote speakers invited by the Canadian Space Society are usually two from outside Canada.I spoke with Dr. Kazuya Yoshida of Tohoku University in Japan.Dr. Yoshida is also a Director and Chief Technology Officer of iSpace, a Japanese New Space startup with ambitions to use the moons resources, water to start, to develop a lunar economic base. iSpace also manages the Japanese Google Lunar X Prize entry, Hakuto.Dr. Yoshida is a robotics expert and has served as the Director of the Centre of Robotics for Extreme and Uncertain Environments at Tohoku University. He has worked for many years on Japanese robotic missions including the asteroid sample return mission Hayabusa. The technology and rovers developed at his lab at Tohoku University have also been used in disaster response.Dr. Yoshida and his colleagues at Tohoku University are also developing what he calls “Cliff Hanger” and “Rock Climber” r

Today on SpaceQ I’ll be talking with Dr. Michael Daly, Associate Professor at York University. We’ll be talking about the international, though NASA led, Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer mission, or as it’s commonly called, OSIRIS-REx.The OSIRIS-REx spacecraft will rendezvous with near-Earth asteroid Bennu next August where it will conduct a series of science investigations including returning a sample to Earth to be analyzed. NASA says the mission will help scientists investigate how planets formed and how life began, as well as improve our understanding of asteroids that could impact Earth.The OSIRIS-REx spacecraft launched on September 8, 2016. Canada is participating in the mission by providing the OSIRIS-REx Laser Altimeter or OLA, which will create a 3-D map of asteroid Bennu’s shape along with helping with navigation.Dr. Daly is the principal Investigator of the Canadian Science Team. York University’s Planetary Exploration Instrumentation Laboratory

My guest is Ryan Anderson. It’s Ryan’s second time on the show having been my guest on Episode 8. Ryan’s back to provide an update on the Satellite Canada Innovation Network which wasn’t selected as a finalist by the government in the Innovation Superclusters Initiative.No matter, Satellite Canada is moving forward anyway. Ryan will also talk about next weeks Canadian Space Summit in Ottawa, for which he’s the chair. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Maritime Launch Services is targeting May 1, 2018 to break ground and begin construction on Canada's first commercial spaceport which would be based in Nova Scotia.On Friday, November 3, 2017 I interviewed Maritime Launch Services (MLS) CEO Steve Matier. As you'll hear in the podcast they are in the "final closing" of their Series A financing and already working on the next round. As Matier points out, this is a commercial project with no funding coming from either the Canadian or Ukrainian governments.What was once just an idea is getting closer to reality, but there's much more work yet to be done. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Dr. Robert Zee is the only director the Space Flight Laboratory (SFL) at the University of Toronto Institute of Aerospace has known since its inception in 1998. Over the years SFL has been an innovator in the field of small satellites and without question can be regarded as one of its pioneers. Robert is my guest on this weeks podcast.What started as an idea has involved into a educational powerhouse in the small satellite field. SFL has produced engineers that have gone on to be part of startups such as Deep Space Industries. Along the way they also turned their original idea into a business. A business that is growing. Today, SFL employs over 50 people and they have 18 satellites to their credit that have been launched to orbit that are performing well. Currently they have 15 satellites in development and that number is increasing. In my wide ranging interview with Robert you'll learn a little of SFL's history, their innovations, future plans and some of the challenges they face as small satellites go beyon

Today on SpaceQ my guest is Jeff Manber, CEO of NanoRacks. Jeff has a degree in neuroscience and started his career in media, so how did he become the successful space entrepreneur that he is today? That story and others are part of this candid interview.Some of the topics we discuss:- Jeff's background and ability to work internationally where others have problems- Russia's commercial space program in the 90's and today- Making the Mir Space Station commercial- Tourists in space, Lance Bass and Astro Mom- How they manage to take 580 payloads to the International Space Station and launch nearly 200 satellites- How the company was funded, future funding and advice for entrepreneurs- A future NanoRacks space station?- Working in Canada See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Today on SpaceQ I’ll be talking with Dan Goldberg, CEO of Telesat. Telesat is a leading global satellite operator based in Ottawa. Dan’s been the Chief Executive at Telesat since 2006. Before working at Telesat he had been CEO at SES New Skies. And for those with long memories, Dan was also Associate General Counsel and Vice President of Government and Regulatory Affairs at PanAmSat.Telesat is charting a new course in developing a low earth orbit constellation of satellites, 117 of them plus spares. For a company with 15 active geostationary satellites in orbit, funding, designing, building and deploying over a hundred more, albeit much smaller satellites, is a challenging prospect.Telesat isn’t the only company vying to develop a small satellite constellation in low earth orbit. Competitors include OneWeb, who appear to be making good progress having recently brought online their factory production in France and a new manufacturing facility in Florida being built.Telesat though has at least one advantage ov

Today on SpaceQ I’m going to discuss the Montreal Space Symposium in two segments which were recorded at the conference on Thursday, October 5th.The Montreal Space Symposium is a new conference that was conceived of and organized by students. In the span of just over two months seven people from different universities pooled their efforts to organize this two day conference. The organizers brought together 12 student associations from Montreal, what they are now calling the Montreal Student Space Associations. Because they kept their costs low and managed to raise the funds they needed from the associations, registration was free and they confirmed 400 registrations with approximately 300 attending the keynote. Their 47 speakers included a sizeable contingent from the Canadian Space Agency, university professors, a handful from industry, one from the Military and of course the students themselves.In the first segment I spoke with three of the organizers, Sandro Papais who is an engineering major at McGill Un

Today I have the pleasure of having Keith Cowing as my guest. Keith is my business partner, having co-founded SpaceRef with me 18 years ago.Before we worked together Keith was the founder of NASA Watch 20 years ago. Keith edits NASA Watch, SpaceRef and the Astrobiology websites on a daily basis.Today we’re going to talk about Jim Bridenstine nomination as NASA Administrator by the Trump administration, last weeks update by Elon Musk on the SpaceX Interplanetary Transport System and Lockheed Martin’s Mars Base Camp concept. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

My guest today is Matt Bamsey a Research Associate at the DLR, the German Space Agency. Matt is Canadian and was one of the 17 finalists in the Canadian Space Agency astronaut recruitment campaign. Before joining the DLR in 2013, Matt had been a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the University of Florida and the University of Guelph where he received his PhD in Environmental Biology. He had also previously worked at the Canadian Space Agency.I first met Matt at the Haughton Mars Crater on Devon Island when he was a student intern at the Canadian Space Agency and a undergrad at Carleton University. My company SpaceRef had donated a greenhouse, what became known as the Arthur Clarke Mars Greenhouse, to the Haughton Mars Project. The greenhouse shell was built by myself, my business partner Keith Cowing, and many others at the Haughton Mars Project. Matt, who was working with the greenhouse science project lead, Alain Berinstein of the Canadian Space Agency, helped install the equipment and cultivate the crops.

My guest today is Ewan Reid, founder of Mission Control Space Services (MCSS), a new company offering a variety of services including their Autonomous Soil Assessment System used to help rovers safely explore the surface of the moon and Mars. As well, MCSS has launched an educational program, Mission Control Academy.Ewan discussed their programs, the companies philosophy and offered a glimpse of their future products. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In this weeks podcast we spoke with Stephane Germain, CEO of GHGSat. GHGSat is an early stage company based in Montreal looking to become the global reference for remote sensing of greenhouse and air quality gas emissions from industrial sites.To accomplish their goal GHGSat is using their patented technology in a sensor placed on a small satellite. Their first satellite, a demonstration satellite called Claire, has just completed its first year in orbit, proving out the technology, though there were some issues.Those issues are being addressed according to Germain, with design changes to be implemented in the next two satellites. The next two satellites will be launched withing two years as part of a planned small satellite constellation.Aside from the commercial market they hope to dominate, GHGSat is also working with the Department of National Defence in determining how their technology can help the military. I also learned that GHGSat will have a ground station online later this year at the government's

Canada hasn't had a National Space Policy since 1974. Currently the government is looking to announce a new Space Strategy this fall. Recently the Space Advisory Board released its report after concluding consultations with stakeholders. On today's show we'll get insights on space policy from Graham Gibbs.Graham joined the Canadian Space Agency in 1988 and spent 22 years in Washington where he first served as the Head of the Canadian Space Agency office at the NASA Space Station Freedom Program Office in Reston, Virginia between 1988 and 1993. He then became Canada's Counsellor for Space Affairs from the Canadian Space Agency at the Canadian Embassy.While representing the Canadian Space Programing in Washington, Graham was involved in several multinational initiatives. These included: (a) the International Space Station Program, including the negotiations to bring Russia into the partnership in which he was Head of the Agency-level negotiating team and Deputy-Head of the government level delegation; (b) a me

On Canada’s 150th Birthday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau introduced Canada’s two newest astronaut recruits. It was a life changing day for them. For Lieutenant-Colonel Joshua Kutryk, it’s a day he won’t soon forget.Its been almost 8 weeks since Joshua was introduced to the public. And this week he’s going back to basic training, that is, astronaut basic training, where over the next two years he’ll learn the basics skills needed to be certified an astronaut.For the Fort Saskatchewan native, going to Houston is a big deal. It’s the home of NASA’s Johnson Space Center and the human spaceflight program. It’s also a very big city, the 4th largest in the United States. Joshua grew on a farm in eastern Alberta and still loves the peaceful nature of his home. But now he’ll need to adjust to the big city, though he’ll be busy most of the time training.Earlier this week I had the opportunity to ask Joshua a few questions before his training starts in earnest. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.